Son asking me to be a guarantor on a house share with 3 others - I'd be responsible for all rent if it went terribly wrong. would you sign?

[Ashleys63]

I don't want my son to lose the house but I'm really not sure. I wouldn't have the money to cover anyone else's part of the rent so would they take me to court etc?
My son assures me his mates are all wonderful and would never not pay their part of the rent but how does he know - anything can happen.

what would you do? I don't want to fall out with him over this .

...and sadly this is a usual practice for student accommodation.

He is over 18 he should not need a guarantor, I would absolutely not be signing it.

This is not unusual at all for student accommodation. We did it very reluctantly a few years ago. It was fine in the end (not needed) but still worrying

I would only be a guarantor for him. I had a student job once in a debt recovery department and they said to me never be a guarantor and the bank just chases whoever is easiest to get the money out of and you are liable for whole thing if you signed for that.

@SakuraEdenSwan1

He is over 18 he should not need a guarantor, I would absolutely not be signing it.

Uni students are almost certainly over the age of 18 , but again it’s standard practice to ask for a guarantor

V common for student lets unfortunately. If this landlord does it you can assume most in the City do it too. I hated signing it for DD but if we hadn't then she wouldn't have a house for 2nd year (2 of her flatmates parents are student landlords in other places & they say the guarantor of the unpaid renter is first to be asked for money and this rarely doesn't work). They may be over 18 but they require a guarantor as they have no income.
Eldest DD has a fantastic landlord and we only have to guarantee her part. But this seems rare.

We are in this position too (DD one of 4 sharing) but they all have individual guarantors.

Sorry if I wasn't clear in my op.

Yes they will all have individual guarantors. However, if they can't get the unpaid rent out of guarantor A then they chase B, then C - D could end up paying it, Worse case scenario is one guarantor could potentially end up paying all the rent. As mentioned up thread, they'll go after whoever's the easiest. This is worse case scenario I know as all house mates would have to not pay, but it could happen.

I signed my dd's joint one last year , I felt very nervous about it but if I refused she would have been looking for a flat by herself which obviously wasn't going to happen! There have been no problems . This years one isn't a joint one thank goodness .

This is talked about a lot on WIWIKAU Facebook at the moment. Loads are taking out insurance so they don't get stuck. Might be worth considering.

Thank you all for your suggestions and help.
I'll have a good think about it and try and negotiate paying my sons rent separately for the year.

Just had this dilemma myself 2 days ago my daughter 18 begging me to be a guarantee or whatever it’s called I point blank refused !! I looked into it and you are responsible for all the rent and if u can’t afford it what’s the risk also they wud do a credit check on you as well to make sure u cus afford it . No one can say they won’t end up not paying u never know what cud happen it’s way to risky x

It is very common for student rental agreements to be joint and several liability and each individual student needing to provide their own guarantor. The guarantee will state that it is for x students liability under the tenancy agreement. However, the very nature of a joint and several agreement is to ensure the students liability under the tenancy agreement is the whole rent, not just his/her own and they are liable if every other tenant under the agreement fails to pay. This also applies to any damage done to the property.
We have done three guarantees now for our DC but on every occasion we have changed the clause in the guarantee form to state something along the lines of “ the liability of the guarantor in this guarantee is limited to the rent payment due from x child of £x per month up to a maximum of £annual amount”. This ensures we would only be guaranteeing the rent for our DC and not any other rent or property damage. No agent has declined this request so it’s worth contacting the letting agent direct to request this additional clause to protect yourself.

No !! Why can't the other parents be joint guarantors!

It's pretty standard to be the guarantor of your student DC's share of the rent.

They will need a guarantor. Who else will be able to do it? Where would they then live?

Just had this dilemma myself 2 days ago my daughter 18 begging me to be a guarantee or whatever it’s called I point blank refused !! I looked into it and you are responsible for all the rent and if u can’t afford it what’s the risk also they wud do a credit check on you as well to make sure u cus afford it . No one can say they won’t end up not paying u never know what cud happen it’s way to risky x
The problem here is that your daughter (& her friends) either end up losing the house they want, and then find that all others have the same problem, or they go ahead without her & she doesn't get to live with her friends.
No !! Why can't the other parents be joint guarantors!
They all are, read the OPs posts - it's what "joint & several" means

@Cookerhood
She wants to move in with her boyfriend !
I’m happy for her to do this but wud prefer he did it in his name and he got and grantor x

Even if other parents are acting as guarantors, this doesn’t mean the landlord can’t make you pay up for the entire liability under the tenancy agreement. When enforcing a guarantee, the holder of the guarantee will simply chase after the person they believe has more money, more likely to pay etc. If all the parent are completing individual guarantee forms, how do you know whether the other parents refused to sign and you’re the only guarantor!
A request to the agent to request a limitation clause protects the guarantor.

Absolutely not.

Is it not possible to draw up an agreement where you are the guarantor for your son's non payment of rent only. Separate contracts for each person living in the house? It seems madness that it could be any other way.

Those of you saying that you will never do this; do you realise that it means your child will nit be able to rent a place without?
It is standard practise with student houses.

It's pretty standard to be the guarantor of your student DC's share of the rent

I agree, it is standard. However if it’s a joint and several tenancy agreement (which most tend to be) the students liability under the tenancy for rent is rent for the whole house if no-one else pays. They are jointly renting the property. The liability under any guarantee for the students “rent” could potentially be for the entire years rent if every other student left the house, didn’t pay and the other parents hadn’t signed any guarantee (because the agents were happy that they’d got one signed by at least one parent that they could pursue).

I am guarantor for my dd only in her house share of 4 people. No way would I do it for strangers. Only doing it for dd as she is very sensible with money.
I think uni may have lists of landlords that don't require guarantor.

My DD has got a houseshare for her second year. We're guarantors, but only for DD...not the others. They all have individual contracts.

I wouldn't sign as guarantor for her housemates, who I don't know from Adam.

I would guarantor on my child's individual tenancy contract in a house share, not on a joint tenancy for everyone. That would be madness to expect parents to do this. When I was a student I always had an individual tenancy contract.